Teenage Sorcerers: Prophecy Foretold

Chapter 20: Sneak Out

"One loaf of Rhabdophis raspberry bread!" Rana called out as he left his cafe's small kitchen, holding out a loaf of raspberry bread that had just been packaged up. "Right here, Rana!" a middle aged man exclaimed as he waved one of his arms from the small group of customers that were in the cafe. He was wearing slightly dirty overalls and a button up yellow shirt with the sleeves rolled up. "Here you go, Mr. Garder! That'll be two fish scales, please!" "Got them right here!" Mr. Garder pulled out two fish scales and handed them to Rana. "I see your hay wagon outside, the workers at the Silor horse stables coming over to pick up the hay today?" Rana asked, looking over outside of the window. Outside were the horse carriages that were used for transportation, but had a large wagon full of hay attached to the back of it. "They can't pick it up today, farmer Stephen is too sick to pick the hay up, so they asked for me to bring it over to them. They agreed to pay for the carriage fee and to pay me extra for the trouble." Mr. Garder smiled as he carried the loaf of bread under his arm. "This loaf is just a snack for the road and for my family back on the farm!" "I see, I hope you enjoy your trip!" Rana smiled and waved goodbye to Mr. Garder. Mr. Garder went back to the carriage and instructed the coachman on the town he wished to go to before climbing into the carriage and going on his way. As the carriage continued on its way, the hay that was being pulled in the back began to rustle around in the wagon. "Chaz, move your foot!" Bryan exclaimed as he poked his head out from the heap of hay. "That's not my foot, I'm not even touching you!" Chaz growled as she also poked her head out. "Guys, relax! We have to stay quiet or else we'll get caught!" Sabbi shushed the two as the carriage continued to move. The group looked around the trail, seeing they had just left Rasferdon and were going on an open trail to guide the carriage. The trees lined up against the path as the bumpy trail grew smoother. The teens peered out of the hay wagon and admired the trees that were gently swaying in the wind before seeing people working along the trail. Some were cutting down trees for wood and others were collecting berries from bushes. The carriage slowed down at a splitted end of the trail, a wooden sign pointing to both of the trails. The sign had two names on it, one indicating to the right trail being Silor, and the left one being Glimis. "Wait, isn't Glimis the town we lied to Os and his friends about how we're from there?" Andre pointed out the name as the carriage turned to the Silor trail. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is..." Sabbi went over to Andre's side to get a quick look at the sign before it vanished into the distance. The teens began to see tall buildings coming up from ahead of the path, each building having a large portrait above every door. Once the carriage got close enough to the buildings, the portrait became more visible. A woman with shoulder length rouge pink hair was shown on the portrait, wearing an elegant dress covered in gold and jewels with a golden crown on her head, the crown having it completely covered in small diamonds. Under the portrait was a label with 'Majesty Marigold: Queen of Silor' stitched in big bold letters. All of the same portraits were seen on every building the teens went past, from the shops to even the houses. The carriage continued going through the town before pulling into an open field with no buildings, only the wide pathway that led down a long way towards a farm that was standing in the distance. As the carriage pulled in front of the farm, a tall woman exited the building and began walking towards the carriage. She was around 6'3 with fluffy locks of hair that was pink like cherry blossoms and reached down to her lower thighs. "Hello, Princess Odessa! Are you covering for Stephen again today?" Mr. Garder asked as he opened his side door and left the carriage. "Yup, he's still down with the flu so I'm covering for him." Odessa smiled as she went to the back of the carriage where the hay was kept. "I'll take it from here, just relax in the carriage until I'm done." She smiled as she looked down at Mr. Garder. "Are you sure, Princess Odessa? I don't mind helping you with bringing in the hay." "Don't worry about it, just take this with you, the extra payment for the trouble of getting here should be inside and I believe farmer Stephen added extra in there for a tip." Odessa handed Mr. Garder a container that rattled around due to its contents. "Thank you, Princess Odessa! Tell farmer Stephen I wish him the best!" Mr. Garder smiled as he went back into the carriage. Odessa went around the farm and came back with another hay wagon. She sets it next to the carriage before unhooking Mr. Garder's hay wagon and picking it up with ease, carefully dumping its contents into the new hay wagon. She reattached the original hay wagon back to the carriage before patting the top of the carriage, signifying the coachman that everything was set. As the carriage turned around and rode off, Odessa brought the load of hay into the farm, bringing the wagon over to the front of the building so she could get the key to open the horse stables. Once she was gone, Andre stuffed his head out of the hay, taking a deep breath. "Finally, she's gone!" he exclaimed as the rest of the Midnight Crusaders poked out from the hay. "But what do we do now? Just make a run for it?" Chaz asked as she looked around the wagon. "That's a stupid idea, we need a strategy to sneak away!" Bryan brushed off Chaz's idea before trying to form a plan in his head. "We need a strategy on how to make you shut up!" She snapped at him, causing Bryan to grow irritated. "I don't need to shut up, you do! I'm trying to find a way for us to escape and you won't stop babbling!" Bryan snapped back, immediately initiating an argument between the two. "Guys, please stop! This isn't helping!" Kennethn tried to stop them, but seeing them so angry with each other made him quickly back off from physically stopping them. Andre moved over to the two and grabbed them both by the backs of their shirts, pulling them apart. "That's enough! We don't have time for this, we have to get out of here!" Andre set them down again once they seemed to have calmed down. "Bryan, continue thinking up an escape plan like you were doing earlier." Andre looked down at Bryan, him nodding before Sabbi spoke up. "He doesn't have to anymore, I figured something out!" she smiled as she moved from the right side of the hay wagon to the left, pointing over to an opening that led into a cornfield. "Let's try to go through there! The cornfield has an open path for us to take and if someone comes in then we can hide in the field! We just need to leave this wagon as quietly as possible!" Sabbi whispered a bit her plan, the rest of the group nodding and putting the plan into action. The teens slowly left the hay wagon, Bryan keeping look out as the rest of the group made sure to go through the most packed areas of the farm leading to the cornfield. They went behind the heaps of animal food and through some puddles of mud, but managed to get to the cornfield entrance. Once everyone else made it to the cornfield, Bryan began rushing through the same obstacles his friends went through, but slipping on one of the mud puddles. He fell over and landed face first into another puddle of mudd. "Damn it!" Bryan exclaimed as he quickly pulled himself out of the mud, hearing Chaz laughing hysterically. "Stop laughing! You're going to get us caught!" He yelled over at her. "Y-You're going to be the one getting us caught i-if you keep yelling!" Chaz yelled back at him through laughter. Bryan grumbled as he rushed to the others, his clothes and face now covered in mud. "Alright, we should be fine for now..." Sabbi sighed in relief as she led her group into the cornfield. The path they were walking down was long and quiet, but a small view of the opposite side of the cornfield could barely be seen. As they walked a good distance into the pathway, an angered voice could be heard from behind them. "HEY, GET BACK HERE!" a voice boomed from the cornfield entrance the group had just come from. The teens turned around, seeing the same woman called Odessa from earlier that helped with the hay yelling at them. Before they could even process what was going on, Odessa was already dashing towards them at full speed, almost like it was a mythical ability of hers. "Run!" Sabbi yelled to her friends, all of them not wasting another second as they began running along with her. It didn't take long for Odessa to catch up to them, snatching the first person she could grab, which so happened to be Sabbi. "What the hell do you guys think you're doing here?!" Odessa yelled as she held up Sabbi by her shirt collar. "N-Nothing, we were just trying to find a free ride to a nearby town, that's all! We don't want any trouble!" Sabbi explained through stutters, the rest of her friends stopping in their tracks to make sure their group leader was okay. "Where did you come from?! Tell me the town, right now!" Odessa continued to yell. "It's Rasferdon! The town is Rasferdon! Now, put her down!" Andre answered for Sabbi, making Odessa look over at him. She gave him a death glare before slowly putting Sabbi down. "Why did you guys want to get out of Rasferdon? Are you criminals or something? And don't lie to me, I can easily find out if you are..." Odessa stared down at the group, folding her arms in frustration. "Should we tell her the truth..?" Kennethn asked, getting a quick nudge to the side by Bryan. "Shut up! We can't do that!" Bryan whispered yelled at him. "I see...so I was right about you guys being criminals." Odessa scoffed. "No, we're not criminals, it's something else...but it's hard to believe..." Sabbi sighed as she fixed up her dress a bit. "Try me then, I'll tell you if I believe you or not." Odessa stared down at Sabbi, keeping her death glare on her face. "Alright...we're from another realm and we came here because we were told that we're the chosen ones to restore the Crystal Calamity before this sorcery realm gets destroyed." Sabbi rubbed her arm as she looked down at her feet. There was a moment of silence before Odessa spoke up. "Are you serious? You guys are the chosen ones?" Odessa's death glare turned to a deadpan look. "Yeah, we are! Wait, you're surprised that we're the chosen ones but not surprised that we're from another realm?" "Of course not, everyone here already knows about your realm, but nobody ever thought that the chosen ones would come from there. We figured it would be from this realm since we got all the mythical abilities and such, you know?" "That makes sense, do you have any abilities? You seem pretty strong and hella fast, do you have super strength and super speed?" "Nope, not even one of them, everything about me is pure strength and skill." Odessa smirked as she moved her hands onto her hips. "Really?! That's insane, you're so strong!" Sabbi exclaimed before getting a tap on her shoulder by Kennethn. "Um, are we okay to leave now..?" he mumbled a bit, still terrified of Odessa. "Almost, I just want to know, how come you wanted to come to Silor? Isn't the Crystal Calamity in Rasferdon?" "It is, but we don't know exactly how to restore it or the reason on how it's the way it is now in the first place, so we decided to travel around the towns here to try and find any clues to how we can restore it." Sabbi answered Odessa while placing a hand on Kennethn's shoulder in an attempt to settle his fear down. "I see...in that case, I'll come with you around Silor, you'll need someone to guide you around the place and to make sure you don't cause any trouble." Odessa declared, ushering the teens out of the cornfield. "Really? That'd be great, thank you!" Sabbi smiled as she followed close behind Odessa. "Are we really going to trust this woman after she was just about to get violent with us..?" Andre whispered to Bryan, cautious of trusting Odessa right away. "Considering we don't know anyone else here and she's supposedly the princess of this town based on what the farmer said, it'll probably be best to stick with her for now, we just need to keep a safe distance. After all, we're only going to be with her for however long we're staying in this town, it's not like she's sticking with us the whole time we're in this realm." Bryan shrugged as they all continued to follow Odessa. "Since you're all here to fix the Crystal Calamity problem, there's something I think you should see..." Odessa turned to the teens before opening the door to the farm. Once all of the teens were inside, they were led to a bedroom with the door wide open, the light inside being dim and dull. Odessa entered the room first, the teens either standing in the doorway or peaking from the side of the door frame. Inside the room was a man that had his entire body under the covers, his eyes closed as he laid there. "Hello farmer Stephen, how are you feeling?" Odessa asked as she moved to stand beside the bed, the eyes of the man slowly opening to look up at her. "Princess Odessa...I'm still feeling sluggish, but I'll get better soon once the Crystal Calamity is restored..." Stephen spoke up in a groggy voice before giving a weak smile. "What does the Crystal Calamity have to do with this..? Didn't you tell the other farmer that he only had the flu..?" Chaz asked, moving forward with Sabbi and Bryan, Andre and Kennethn staying behind to stand in the doorway. "Well...it was a lie..." Odessa sighed as she looked over at Stephen, who nodded at her. She carefully moved the covers off of Stephen, revealing to the teens the real reason for Stephen's suffering. His body was deteriorating, his limbs shrunken and losing consciousness. "This is what's really happening with him...he has the ability of controlling water, but since nobody out here had any idea about the Crystal Calamity's deterioration, farmer Stephen continued to use his water ability to grow his crops for the town like usual...now he's like this..." Odessa covered Stephen back up with the cover, frowning as she did so. "We're forced to lie to others about what's going on with him, I'm only telling you guys the truth because you claim to be the chosen ones. Other people have had the same issue as well, but were forced out of the town by my sister because she found them repulsive...the only reason why she let farmer Stephen stay here is because he provides the crops for the town, but only under the guides that nobody outside of town finds out what he's going through." "Your sister? Why would she do something like that? And it's not her place to decide who stays and leaves the town!" Andre exclaimed, moving away from the doorway. "It is her place to decide, she's the queen of Silor, so she's the one who makes the rules here." Odessa left the bedside, ushering the teens out of the bedroom. "Lets let farmer Stephen rest...I'll come by tomorrow to help with the farm like usual." Odessa looked over at Stephen, who gave her another nod before slowly closing his eyes once more. "We have to do something...everyone with mythical abilities keep getting worse..." Andre looked down at his feet before feeling a hand gently grab his shoulder. "Don't worry, we got this, we just need to stick with Odessa and we'll be fine to explore around here and look for clues!" Sabbi tried to reassure him, even though deep down she felt the same amount of pressure and anxiousness as Andre and everyone else about the situation at hand. But there was no use for them to stand there in worry, they had to get a move on. They began following Odessa into town, making sure to remain close to her to avoid getting lost in their new area.